


The Price That Keeps On Paying

by Sour_Idealist



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Alternate Universe - War, Crossover Pairings, F/F, Flash Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-24
Updated: 2010-11-24
Packaged: 2017-10-21 07:05:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/222268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sour_Idealist/pseuds/Sour_Idealist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They are rebel soldiers first, women a distant second, lovers last of all. And they do not surrender.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price That Keeps On Paying

****

Theirs is a courtship conducted in violence. Before they know each others’ first names, they know each others’ reflexes, each others’ strength and speed. They don’t even need to think to anticipate the flash of a bullet or the angle of a kick.

They’re assigned to drag an old satellite back to the base for salvage, and on the dilapidated bridge they share their reasons for fighting.

Government destroyed half my world. My family died. Radiation poisoning.

Took my sister for experiments. She died a monster.

They stare at the stars as they explain, wrapping details around the steely facts until they don’t sound used to it anymore.

The first time they hold hands, it’s on a rusty metal catwalk over a rotten, reeking swamp, and Tifa nearly crushes Lightning’s bones as the taller soldier fishes a bullet out of her comrade’s shoulder.

The first time they have sex, it’s in a hastily pitched tent on an ice cap. Neither of them sees anything they haven’t seen before, between sharing communal showers and emergency first aid and frantic disguise-changes in the first nook they can find.

What’s new is the hint of gentleness in Lightning’s lips, the faint glimmer of happiness in Tifa’s eyes.

And then the night is over, and they scramble into their clothes and hope that their comrades didn’t hear them, and there’s no time to think about anything but the trek and the bombs they have to plant.

When the war is over, they’ll work out what this means. Until then, they’ll hold on to each other however they can.

In a smoldering wreck of a ship orbiting a desert moon, they look at each other and realize that their side cannot win this war.

They cling to each other, because they’re going to try anyway.


End file.
